Friday 19th October – Perth (Scarborough) 0km No lead

A much needed sleep in. Woke at 8:30, down the lift, wandered through the building complex and found a café for a relaxed breakfast. We ambled down to the beach, seeing half dozen blunt tailed lizards in the park along on the way then took a stroll along the beach front before returning via the busy, noisy road to our rooms for an appreciated respite - Kath & Russell in the spa, Wendy for pedicure & manicure and me at the computer in our room with views over the coast. Bliss - fast, free internet in the lobby!

Thursday 18th October: Lancelin – Perth 187km Russell lead

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday dear Kath

Happy birthday to you

Kath’s birthday – “Oh my” what a day!

On our way through to Perth we called in at the Gravity Discovery Centre; a working observatory combined with a large interactive learning centre on gravity and cosmology. Fascinating, but it did my head in – sound waves, light waves, black holes, gravity - all heady stuff. The climb up the leaning tower to drop water bombs was cool – 180 tonnes of steel, 222 steps, 45 meters high, 15 degrees of inclination – and the 360 degree view from the top was pretty spectacular too. On to Perth, hired a car then proceeded to drop the campervans back off 2 blocks away. Do we blame the Navman or the Navigator? The map shows 167km from Lancelin to Perth plus a little bit to the Discovery Centre but we ended up doing 187km for the day. Now, I ask you, do you really think it takes 1 ½ hours to drive 2 blocks? The short answer is yes, it can do! Finally after much stress, one lead vehicle and two following vehicles, through traffic lights, intersections, motorways, side streets all without losing one another we made it – late, but we made it. A grand total of 7,252km. We drove across Perth to the northern suburb of Scarborough to The Rendezvous Hotel on the waterfront. A palatial place, in the middle of renovations, where we were lucky enough to get a renovated room with views north up the coast and its own private little balcony. Across the street, we found a lovely restaurant for the double celebration of Kath’s birthday, where Russ presented her with a gorgeous pearl necklace inspirationally designed on the Staircase to the Moon theme, and the successful completion of the 4 wheeling part of our holiday. After dinner, it was back to our exquisitely comfortable rooms for a blissful night’s sleep.

Wednesday 17th October: Geraldton – Lancelin 336km Wendy lead

Rain! During the night, for the first time in 3 weeks, we heard rain for about 10 minutes. While Jan cooked us bacon, eggs, beans and toast I commandeered her computer and while watching “Red Dog” (a 1970’s Pilbara icon – more tissues Kath?) managed to finally get the blog up-to-date for the first time. Finally left Geraldton and heading down the coast we got caught behind one of the widest loads we had seen at 7.5 meters. It literally took up both lanes of the road and even road trains had to park up well off the road for it to pass. The massive trailer carrying the load looked like a toy. We turned off onto Indian Ocean Drive stopping at the seaside town of Leeman for morning tea, complete with flies and wind, continuing on to Cervates for lunch with, you guessed it, the inevitable flies and wind. Had a good look around at the “Pinnacles” which we found quite fascinating; limestone columns up to 3 meters high protruding from desert sands. “Rising mysteriously from the dune sands are thousands of limestone pillars, a landscape in eerie contrast to the surrounding heath.” Well worth the visit. We ended the day in Lancelin, yet another seaside town with flies and wind, in a run-down campground having now clocked up 7,000km.

 

Tuesday 16th October: Geraldton 66km Kath lead

Geraldton – Mid West Wheat Belt so the radio station keeps proclaiming but what it doesn’t mention is, since dropping below the Tropic of Capricorn, the flies, the constant westerly wind and the cooler evenings and nights. Jan & Andrew offered for us to stay the night on their back lawn and Jan clinched the deal with a promise of a pork roast for dinner so we spent a quiet day around Geraldton. We started with a walk through of the old goal now used as a craft market with most of the old cells used as craft stalls. Next it was on to McDonald’s for coffee with the intention of using their wi-fi to update this blog. The place was cold, the wi-fi slow and kept dropping off. Kath & Russell left as us to it and wandered around town and after a couple of hours Wendy & I gave up as well. Met up with Russell & Kath again and had a crappy lunch in a run-down mall. Russell led us on a drive by tour of the town before separating and having a meander around Geradton on our own. Found a few places of interest; the port, beaches and the sight of the first light house and the keeper’s house. There have been 11 shipwrecks off Geraldton starting in 1629 with the Batavia (quite a gruesome story relating to the survivors) through to 1936. Due to the dangerous reef crossing, quite an ingenious way to assist ships navigate their way through the reef into harbour was used. One lighthouse was built on the shore line and another on the hill behind. The ships captain’s would position their ships so the two lights were in alignment and sail directly towards them through the opening in the reef. Caught up again with Russell & Kath and arrived at Jan & Andrew’s for a chin wag and our promised roast. Thank you Jan for a truly magnificent meal and to you both for your generous hospitality.

 

 

Monday 15th October: Kalbarri – Geraldon 216km Warwick lead

On leaving Kalbarri we headed down the coast stopping in at many of the lookouts along the bluffs. All very spectacular with their red layered rock formations and at one of them we could even watch whales swimming by in the distance. Leaving sight of the coast line we continued on south where the road took us along the banks of the Hutt Lagoon at the bottom end of which we turned back up the coast to the little seaside resort of Gregory. The lagoon had a pink tinge to it and later on we found out that this caused by an algae bloom and in season the entire lagoon is a very bright pink. Heading back inland to once again connect up to the North West Coastal Highway at the very old historic farming town of Northampton where we had our lunch stop. From Northampton it was just a short hop down to Geraldton on the coast. Geralton is about the same size as Whangarei, full of historic buildings with still a thriving port and railway. After booking in at camp we took a leisurely drive around the town before the inevitable grocery shop. Wendy phoned friends, Andrew and Jan from Kerikeri, now living over here and they came over to visit us at camp. A delightful couple and being jeep owners they were immediate friends of Russell & Kath.

 

Sunday 14th October: Hamelin Pool – Kalbarri 342km Russell lead

After breakfast we went for a walk up the hill behind the camp/telegraph station, to the shell quarry onto the Stromatolites and back to camp. Drove back to the Overlander Roadhouse on the North West Coastal Highway to refuel and air up before continuing along on a straight we started a couple of days ago before turning off to Steep Point. The straight – 102.8km in total! Towards the turn off to Kalbarri we started noticing trees along the side of the road rather than shrubs and a while later saw cultivated farm land with fields of wheat. Turning off to Kalbarri we meandered through the Kalbarri National Park calling in at several lookouts all offering spectacular views over the Murchison River. We arrived in Kalibarri a modern and picturesque town situated on the coast at the mouth of the Murchison River.

 

Saturday 13th October: Monkey Mia – Hamelin Pool 424km Wendy lead

We were woken before dawn with vehicles leaving very early, possibly to go fishing. Got up at dawn and wandered down to the beach. Not a breath of wind, water as smooth as glass and within 50 meters of shore we watched 4 dolphins feeding and a stingray glide by within a meter of shore. After breakfast we broke camp and waited for the dolphin interaction display the resort puts on each morning, although it’s up to the dolphins if they decide to turn up or not. While waiting, a turtle swam past close to shore. With a big day ahead of us we couldn’t wait for the dolphins to appear and as we had already seen them feeding for themselves we left Monkey Mia at 8:30. Back down the Peron Peninsula 100km, hung a right for 40km, then another right.heading north west. The road changing from sealed to wide dirt, to narrow & corrugated and finally single lane and sandy. We came to a hill that was all soft sand, without knowing how long, steep or how many more to follow we aired down and made a run for it. Clawed our way to the top and down the other side. Finally made it to Steep Point – westernmost point of mainland Australia. The return trip wasn’t quite as bad but very thankful that we hadn’t met another vehicle on the track. We made it back fairly late to Hamelin Pool at the base of the Peron Peninsula and stayed at a camp ground the complete opposite to the previous night. Small with few other campers and a very friendly & knowledgeable staff it was a real gem. On arriving we were given a tour of the old telegraph exchange and told a little of the history of the place. The telegraph was established in the 1800’s as a repeater station. Back in those days, before the advent of the telephone, messages were sent by morse code but the power could only transmit a signal 100miles so repeater stations were set up all along the coast. There is an old disused quarry just back from the shoreline for mining shell blocks. Unlike Shell Beach we visited previously where the shells are loose; these shells are cemented together by rain leeching the calcium from the shells and being compacted down under pressure. The deposits are up to 8 meters deep and are cut out using hand saws into blocks which were used for building. Hamelin Bay itself is unique. At its entrance there is a natural sand bank so the tidal movement is restricted to about 300mm. With the pool only about 1,200mm deep, high temperatures and little rain resulting in high evaporation the salinity of the water is 2 ½ times that of the ocean which keeps the sea slugs and snails out – the natural predators of Stromatolites. Now, what are Stromatolites I hear you ask. Quite simply, without them you may not be here. They are, literally, living rocks. Formed in colonies by single-celled microbes growing at only .3mm per year. They’ve been around for 3.5 billion years when there was only 1% oxygen in the atmosphere and as they release oxygen, they were the main contributor of raising the oxygen level to 21% helping create the environment for all other living organisms. It took another billion years for two types of bacteria to merge to form a more complex single-celled organism establishing the building block for the later evolution of higher life forms. Come to think of it, I know a few humans that are very closely related to Stromatolites.